VO2max

The monthly newsletter of RunCoachJason.com

Jason Karp, professional coach, consultant, freelance writer

January, 2006

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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In this issue:

Integrating Science with Application—Strength Training

Losing Weight in the New Year

Nuances of Lactate Threshold

Sustaining VO2max

In Press

Dissertation Update

New Year’s Gift of Fitness

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Integrating Science with Application—Strength Training

(excerpted from Karp, J.R. Strength Training and the Distance Runner: A Scientific Perspective. Running Times. 330:22-24,26, Oct. 2005.)

 

Although the value of strength training to improving distance running performance is not readily apparent, it may help you to become faster if done with the right type of program.  That’s because increasing your muscular strength will increase your muscular power, which is the product of force (strength) and speed.  Athletic performance is ultimately limited by the amount of force and power that can be produced and

sustained.

 

Most movements in sports occur too quickly for muscles to produce maximal force; it is far more important to increase the rate at which force is produced.  While racing, your foot is in contact with the ground for only a fraction of a second, not nearly enough time to generate maximal force.  The goal of strength training is to get your muscles to increase their rate of force production, so you can have stronger muscle contractions in a shorter time.  There is a growing body of research that suggests strength training has some value for endurance athletes when it is geared toward training for power.  Interestingly, power training has been shown to improve running economy. 

 

Recent studies have shown that running economy is improved when subjects include explosive or heavy weight training in their training programs.  Two of those studies, published in Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports and Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, had their subjects perform lower body exercises using heavy weights (greater than 85% of one-rep max) with fast speeds for 3 to 4 sets of 5 to 6 repetitions.  

 

Plyometric training, which includes jumping and bounding exercises involving repeated rapid eccentric and concentric muscle contractions, has also been shown to improve running economy.  In a study from the Australian Institute of Sport, a group of highly-trained runners that added nine weeks of plyometrics to their running training improved running economy and leg power more than did a control group that only ran.  In another study from Finland published in Journal of Applied Physiology, one group of runners combined their endurance training with plyometric exercises (5 to 10 reps of 20- to 100-meter sprints and jumping exercises) and lower body weight training with light weights (0 to 40% one-rep max) lifted quickly, while another group did only endurance training.  Only the runners who did both the plyometric and endurance training improved their economy and 5-K time.

 

If you are planning on adding strength training to your program, do the bulk of it during your speed phase of training rather than during your aerobic endurance phase, since speed, strength, and power are more closely related physiological traits than are strength and endurance.  Likewise, do your strength/power workouts on your speedwork days rather than on your recovery run or long run days. 

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Losing Weight in the New Year

Each January, many people make New Year’s resolutions to lose weight.  And each January, the sales of weight loss books skyrocket.  The publishers of these books love the month of January.  But with all of the weight loss books on the market, doesn’t anyone wonder why Americans are still fat?  Why aren’t these books making a difference?  Because nearly all of them focus on how much or on what types of food to eat; none of them focus on the real issue.     

 

Weight loss is much simpler than the authors or publishers of these books would have the public believe.  Weight is a matter of third grade math.  Consume less calories than you expend and you’ll lose weight.  Consume more calories than you expend and you’ll gain weight.  Consume and expend the same number of calories and your weight will remain stable.  It’s as simple as that.  Even celebrities, like actress Suzanne Somers and T.V. psychologist Dr. Phil, write books and become wealthy off of the public’s ignorance of third grade math. 

 

The difficulty people have in losing weight is not that they eat too many carbohydrates or even that they eat too much.  It’s that they don’t exercise enough.  I know many runners who eat more than the fattest people.  It’s almost common knowledge these days that you must expend 3,500 more calories than you consume to lose one pound.  If we get a bit more complicated and do some fourth grade math, we see that you must expend 35,000 more calories than you consume to lose 10 pounds, 70,000 calories to lose 20 pounds, and so on.  These deficits are too large to overcome when people don’t exercise (a lot) every day.  Even a healthy turkey sandwich still has enough calories to replace what you expend on a 3-mile run.  If people set small goals for themselves, calculating how much of a caloric deficit they need each day to lose a specific amount of weight in a specific amount of time, weight loss can become a reality.  As long as you stay away from whipped cream—it goes right to your thighs! 

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Nuances of Lactate Threshold

It seems that many runners and coaches miss the nuances of lactate threshold when prescribing training paces for workouts.  Every time I read a magazine or mainstream book about running, I read that lactate threshold (LT) pace is 25 to 30 seconds per mile slower than 5-K race pace, 15 to 20 seconds per mile slower than 10-K race pace, and between 10-mile and half-marathon race pace.  However, these guidelines are only true for excellent runners.  The better your endurance, the longer you can hold your LT pace and the better you are at sustaining any fraction of your LT pace.  In other words, if a 15-minute 5-K runner can run 30 seconds per mile faster than LT pace (which equals 110% of LT pace) for those 15 minutes, certainly a 25-minute 5-K runner is not also going to be able to run 30 seconds per mile faster than LT pace (which equals 106% of LT pace) for 25 minutes, 10 minutes (and 66%) longer than the good runner.  Someone who runs a 10-K in 50 minutes is likely running slower than his/her LT pace for a 10-K, not 20 seconds per mile faster.  And someone who runs a half marathon in 1 hour and 45 minutes is certainly not running anywhere near LT pace.  What matters is how long it takes to run the distance, not the distance itself.

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Sustaining VO2max

When people run races, they don’t run at some arbitrary intensity.  The percentage of VO2max that you can sustain for a specific amount of time is predictable.  For example, research has shown that 100% VO2max can be sustained for only about 8 to 10 minutes.  The longer the race, the lower the percent VO2max at which you’ll run it.  Talented, highly-trained runners race a 3-K at about 98 to 100% VO2max, a 5-K at about 90 to 95% VO2max, and a marathon at about 80 to 85% VO2max. 

 

Just like sustaining LT pace, the faster you are, the higher the percentage of your VO2max that you can sustain for a specific distance.  Therefore, the above percentages will be lower for average or below-average runners.

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In Press...

Have you ever walked through a gym and been intimidated by all the dumbbells, barbells, and machines that put you in awkward positions that are best reserved for the bedroom?  You’re not alone.  Weight Training for Beginners, my article that explains all the basics of weight training, including a sample program, appears in the January, 2006 special weight loss issue of Oxygen magazine.

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Dissertation Update

In the March, 2005 issue of this newsletter, I described the topic of my Ph.D. dissertation.  Well, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about this degree, it’s that things can change at any moment.  In an attempt to have a better shot at winning a Nobel Prize (at least that’s what I tell myself), my dissertation is now focused on the relationship between breathing and locomotion in elite distance runners.  Specifically, I am studying if these athletes, many of whom exhibit unique cardiopulmonary characteristics, such as exercise-induced hypoxemia and expiratory flow limitation, coordinate their breathing frequency to their stride rate at different speeds, as has been documented in many four-legged animals.  I’m also examining if runners who coordinate breathing and stride rate are more economical than runners who do not coordinate these two rhythms.

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New Year’s Gift of Fitness

Know someone who wants to lose weight or become a faster runner?  Want to sustain a higher percentage of your VO2max?  What better way to start off the New Year with a personal trainer or coach? RunCoachJason.com offers a number of online and in-person personal training and coaching services, based on individual needs and goals.  Coach Jason will customize a training program specifically for you.  For a complete list of services, go to http://www.runcoachjason.com/coaching.

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To view past newsletters, go to http://www.runcoachjason.com/newsletter.

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©2006 Jason Karp.  All rights reserved.